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Why Does Mickeysoft Insist on Making Life Difficult?

As a club committee-member preparing for the AGM I took every care to save my Report as a Word document (.doc) so the Secretary and others can collate it with other Officers' Reports.
So what did M-Soft do? Only converted it automatically to a b++++y docx image!
I can't even edit it, if I wanted to, on my own PC because it's now read-only and in only WordPad. It took me ages to find it because Windows had saved it as a so-called "down-load" even though on the originating PC, and not in my chosen directory and folder.
If I want to convert a docx file to a doc format for further editing or collating, I'd have to pay an expensive subscription to Adobe for the converter - I don't trust Adobe anyway because its Flashplayer for a start, never loads properly. Over £30 a month I think, for something I'd need only a few times a year. This was never previously necessary - saved files stayed as you chose, in the folder you chose.

It's a scam!  

Posted - November 10, 2017

Responses


  • 44608
    I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you speaking Millenial?
      November 10, 2017 12:40 PM MST
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  • 3719
    May I return the compliment? I have no idea what you are talking about - "speaking Millenial"? What language is that?

    No, I speak English, and what I wrote is clear English.

    I found a file I had created to pass to others is locked even on the computer I used to write the document; automatically, against my wishes.

    I have used assorted MS, Amstrad and Sun software, at work and at home, since the days of MS-DOS. Until only about 2 or 3 years ago, files produced on MS software were by and large interchangeable - and if you saved a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet, it stayed as a .doc or an .xls file which you could edit again or transmit knowing the recipient could edit it if required. (I do not know if similar happens to other file-types like Access databases.)

    This "x" extension means my Word file had become a locked image like a .pdf.

    Only Wordpad will open it, and read-only.

    If you need to be able to exchange documents etc between computers that may have different forms and editions of MS Windows, this new trick means the recipient cannot use the file further.

    That may not matter if your Internet use is restricted to "social media" and copying music, but if you have more serious uses for the system, you are stuffed.

    I would like to know why.

    I can guess - money, judging by previous instances - but I don't know if there are other reasons.  

    So rather than waffling about something called "Millennial", perhaps you can tell me why MS has introduced this file-extension system?
      November 10, 2017 1:48 PM MST
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  • 44608
    Sorry...I know very little about software and less about MS's motivations.
      November 10, 2017 1:50 PM MST
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  • 3719
    Fair enough! :-)

    MS' main motive is money but I think it is has also changed intentions. 

    From what I've seen of their software now, and this was supported by what others have told me, it is no longer interested in users who want the deeper Office-suite facilities it used to offer. 

    It is after the portable device, social-media and entertainments market; and I am convinced it discusses applications with the ISPs, equipment makers and social-media proprietors, but never users. 
      November 10, 2017 3:32 PM MST
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  • 22891
    not sure why
      November 10, 2017 1:48 PM MST
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